Duke of Galliera is an Italian noble title that has been created several times for members of different families. The name of the title refers to the ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of

Galliera Galliera ( Northern Bolognese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about north of Bologna. Galliera borders the following municipalities: Malalbergo, Pieve di Cent ...

, which is located in the

Province of Bologna The province of Bologna () was a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its provincial capital was the city of Bologna. The province of Bologna covered an area of and had a total population of 1,004,323 inhabitants as of 31 December 2014 ...

Emilia–Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 million. Emilia-Romagna is one of ...

History

The title was first created in 1812 by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

for

Josephine of Leuchtenberg Josephine of Leuchtenberg (Joséphine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais; 14 March 1807 – 7 June 1876), also Josefina, was Queen of Sweden and Norway from 8 March 1844 to 8 July 1859 as the wife of King Oscar I. She was also Pri ...

, daughter of

Eugène de Beauharnais Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, ...

(and granddaughter of Napoleon's first wife, Josephine). She kept the title even after she married Oscar, Crown Prince of Sweden. Napoleon had already given her the Palazzo Caprara in Bologna in 1807, which was renamed the Palazzo Galliera. In 1837, after a decade of negotiations, Crown Prince Oscar sold properties attached to the dukedom to Marquis

Raffaele de Ferrari Marquis Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari, Prince of Lucedio, Duke of Galliera (6 July 1803 – 23 November 1876) was an Italian philanthropist and politician. Raffaele was born at Genoa from an aristocratic family, the third child of Andrea de Ferrari a ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. The following year, the marquis received the title of Duke of Galliera from Pope

Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

. In 1839, King

Charles Albert of Sardinia Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state from 27 April 1831 until his abdication in 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constit ...

confirmed the grant to the marquis and added the title of Prince of Lucedio. With his wife,

Maria Brignole-Sale Maria Brignole Sale De Ferrari, Duchess of Galliera (5 April 1811 – 9 December 1888) was an Italian noblewoman and philanthropist. She enabled the foundation of the first museums in her birthplace of Genoa, the Palazzo Rosso (Genoa), Palazzo Ro ...

, the new Duke of Galliera had three children, but two of them died young and childless. The third, the famous

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

Philipp von Ferrary Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (January 11, 1850 – May 20, 1917) was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare ...

, renounced the title and the inheritance to which it was linked. In 1877, after the death of her husband, Maria Brignole-Sale (a fervent

Orléanist Orléanist () was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported a constitutional monarchy expressed by the House of Orléans. Due to the radical political changes that occurred during France in the long nineteenth ...

) bequeathed his Italian properties to

Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier Antoine, Duke of Montpensier (Antoine Marie Philippe Louis d'Orléans; 31 July 18244 February 1890), was a member of the French royal family#Louis Philippe of France (1773–1850, r.1830–1848), French royal family in the House of Orléans. He ...

, the youngest son of

Louis-Philippe I, King of the French Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his thron ...

. After the death of Maria Brignole-Sale in 1888, Prince Antoine received the ducal title of Galliera from King

Umberto I of Italy Umberto I (; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw Italy's expansion into the Horn of Africa, as well as the creation of the Triple Alliance (1882), Triple Alliance a ...

. Since then, the title of Duke of Galliera has belonged to the

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Spanish royal family The Spanish royal family constitutes the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon (), also known as the House of Bourbon-Anjou (). The royal family is headed by King Felipe VI and currently consists of the King; Queen Letizia; their children, Leono ...

, although the properties attached to the dukedom were sold by Infante Antonio in 1920.

Bernadotte-Leuchtenberg dukes

Ferrari Brignole-Sale dukes

Orléans dukes

Notes and references

History of the Duchy of Galliera.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711063531/http://www.galeriekugel.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=7&tabindex=6&objectid=31181&categoryid=0 , date=2011-07-11 *Dominique Paoli, Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Princes of Orleans, 1848-1918, Artena, 2006, p. 248. 248.
''Duke of Galliera Escapes. Appears in Italy from Madrid, where King was his Guardian.'' The New York Times. September 12 1919.Franco Ardizzoni, 'Il Ducato di Galliera, Dalle terre della "bassa" all'Europa'

History

Bernadotte-Leuchtenberg dukes

Ferrari Brignole-Sale dukes

Orléans dukes

See also

Notes and references